What Happens to Your CDL After a DUI in Florida? (2026)

Rewrite/update date: November 3, 2026. Originally published in September 2025.

As founder of The Brancato Law Firm, P.A., a Tampa criminal defense firm, a member of the National College for DUI Defense, and a former police academy instructor, I have watched a single DUI arrest threaten careers that took truck and bus drivers decades to build. A CDL case is two fights at once: the disqualification with the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles and the criminal charge in county court. Our attorneys take both from the first day, and in 2025 our firm won back a commercial driver’s CDL on appeal after a hearing officer upheld his suspension.

What is the blood-alcohol limit for CDL drivers in Florida?

The limit is 0.04 while driving a commercial motor vehicle and 0.08 in a personal vehicle. Florida goes further for commercial vehicles: section 322.62, Florida Statutes, says a person “who has any alcohol in his or her body may not drive or be in actual physical control of a commercial motor vehicle in this state.”

Florida defines a commercial motor vehicle in section 322.01 as one with a gross vehicle weight rating of 26,001 pounds or more, one designed to carry more than 15 people including the driver, or one carrying hazardous materials that require placards. Section 322.62 also makes clear that a commercial driver can still be prosecuted for regular DUI under section 316.193.

How long is a CDL disqualified after a DUI in Florida?

A first DUI conviction or test refusal disqualifies a CDL holder from commercial driving for 1 year. Florida adopts these periods in section 322.61, Florida Statutes, and they match the federal table in 49 C.F.R. § 383.51.

Federal rules allow a state to reinstate a driver disqualified for life after 10 years if the driver voluntarily completed an approved rehabilitation program, and a driver reinstated that way who is later convicted of another disqualifying offense can never be reinstated, under 49 C.F.R. § 383.51(a)(6). Our attorneys at The Brancato Law Firm tell CDL clients at the first meeting how close a plea offer would put them to that lifetime line.

Does a DUI in my personal car affect my CDL in Florida?

Yes. Under section 322.64(1)(a), the officer disqualifies a CDL holder who is arrested with a 0.08 or higher result, or who refuses a test, while driving any motor vehicle, and section 322.61(3)(b) imposes the same 1-year disqualification for a DUI conviction in a personal car. The officer issues a 10-day permit that covers noncommercial vehicles only. Our firm talks through the CDL consequences in the first phone call so the driver does not report to work behind the wheel of a truck.

Can a CDL holder get a hardship license after a DUI in Florida?

A CDL holder can apply for a business-purposes license for a personal vehicle, but no hardship license allows commercial driving. Section 322.64(10) says a disqualified driver may be eligible for a business or employment license under section 322.271, but “such business or employment purposes license shall not authorize the driver to operate a commercial motor vehicle.” For a driver whose income depends on the CDL, the review hearing and the criminal case are the only ways to keep driving commercially.

Can a CDL holder get a withhold or diversion on a DUI in Florida?

A withhold of adjudication or a diversion program does not protect a CDL the way it can protect a regular license. Federal law bars masking: under 49 C.F.R. § 384.226, a state “must not mask, defer imposition of judgment, or allow an individual to enter into a diversion program” that would keep a CDL holder’s traffic conviction off the national driver record, in any type of vehicle. Florida applies the federal definition of conviction to CDL holders in section 322.01(11)(b), and that definition in 49 C.F.R. § 383.5 includes a plea of guilty or no contest accepted by the court and the payment of a fine or court cost, regardless of whether the penalty is suspended or probated.

That rule changes how our attorneys negotiate. In Hillsborough County, the State Attorney’s RIDR program resolves many first-time DUI cases with a plea to reckless driving, but reckless driving is a serious traffic violation for a CDL holder under section 322.61(1), and two of them within 3 years bring a 60-day disqualification. For a commercial driver, our firm weighs every offer against the CDL record before recommending it, and we often push for a dismissal or a trial rather than a plea that keeps the client off the road.

How many commercial drivers are kept off the road for drug and alcohol violations?

As of January 2, 2026, 202,345 commercial drivers were in prohibited status in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse, meaning they could not drive commercially until completing the return-to-duty process, according to the Clearinghouse December 2025 monthly report. The same report shows 16,213 violations recorded for drivers holding Florida-issued CDLs or learner’s permits, the third-highest total of any state, behind Texas and California. Those figures come from workplace testing, which runs separately from a DUI case, and a DUI arrest can set off both.

Record-keeping errors also affect CDL holders. In a 2021 audit, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General found that states did not transmit 18% of 2,182 major-offense convictions on time and that some drivers served shorter disqualifications than federal law requires, as summarized in report ST2021030. Our attorneys check the driver record itself before advising a client on dates, because the disqualification a driver is told about is not always the one on file.

What happens at a CDL disqualification hearing in Florida?

A CDL disqualification hearing is a review before a hearing officer of the state motor vehicle department, and the driver must request it within 10 days of the notice. Under section 322.64(7), the hearing officer decides by a preponderance of the evidence whether the officer had probable cause to believe the person was driving or in actual physical control with alcohol or drugs in the body, and either whether the result was 0.08 or higher or whether the person refused after being warned of the 1-year or permanent consequence.

The statute gives the driver real leverage. If the department fails to schedule the formal hearing within 30 days of the request, it must invalidate the disqualification, and if the arresting officer or breath technician fails to appear under subpoena, the department must invalidate it as well. A hearing request does not pause the disqualification, so the timing of every step matters.

The regular-license suspension that usually comes with a CDL disqualification is reviewed under section 322.2615, and there the lawfulness of the arrest is fair game. In Florida Department of Highway Safety & Motor Vehicles v. Hernandez, 74 So. 3d 1070 (Fla. 2011), a driver lost his license for refusing a breath test, and the hearing officer would not consider his argument that the request did not follow a lawful arrest. The Florida Supreme Court held that the department cannot suspend a license for a refusal that was not incident to a lawful arrest, and that the hearing officer must decide that issue. Our attorneys raise the legality of the stop and arrest at the license hearing, months before a criminal judge rules on a motion to suppress. If the hearing officer sustains the disqualification, the driver can ask the circuit court to review the decision by petition for writ of certiorari, filed within 30 days of the order.

How did our firm get a CDL suspension overturned on appeal?

Our client, a commercial driver in Hillsborough County, was arrested for DUI, and the department suspended both his regular license and his CDL. Our firm requested a formal review hearing within the 10-day window.

We made a deliberate choice not to subpoena the arresting officer. We expected the department to rely only on its own paperwork, the packet containing the police report and test documents, and that paperwork did not establish probable cause on its face. The hearing officer upheld the suspension anyway, relying on facts that were not in the record.

Our firm filed a petition for writ of certiorari in the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit, arguing that the hearing officer departed from the essential requirements of law. On September 19, 2025, the court granted the petition in case number 25-CA-004400, the suspension was overturned, and both the client’s regular license and his CDL were reinstated. These redacted public records show the court’s reasoning:

• Petition for Writ of Certiorari (PDF, redacted)
• Order Granting the Petition (PDF, redacted)

Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.

What should a CDL holder do in the first 10 days after a DUI arrest?

The first 10 days decide whether the disqualification gets reviewed at all. Our firm uses that time this way:

Talk to a lawyer before signing any written statement for a carrier or an insurer. For the general timeline after any DUI arrest, see our guide on what happens after a DUI arrest in Hillsborough County, and for how the State proves the charge, see what DUI means in Florida. Our Tampa DUI lawyer page covers the rest of our DUI defense work, and our Hillsborough County criminal defense page explains the local court process.

Frequently asked questions about CDL DUI cases in Florida

Can I drive my truck for work after a DUI arrest in my own car in Florida?

No. A CDL holder who blows 0.08 or higher or refuses a test is disqualified from commercial driving at the arrest, and the 10-day permit covers noncommercial vehicles only. The Brancato Law Firm requests the review hearing right away, because a successful review is the only way to restore commercial driving while the criminal case is pending.

Is a DUI refusal treated the same as a DUI conviction for a CDL?

Yes, for disqualification purposes. A first refusal brings the same 1-year disqualification as a first conviction under section 322.61 and the federal table, and a second refusal or conviction in a separate incident brings a lifetime disqualification. Our attorneys at The Brancato Law Firm test whether the arrest was lawful and whether the officer gave the CDL warning the statute requires.

Can a CDL DUI charge be dropped or reduced in Florida?

Yes. A CDL DUI can be dismissed when the stop was unlawful, the test is excluded, or the evidence of impairment is weak, but a reduction to reckless driving still counts as a serious traffic violation on a CDL record. The Brancato Law Firm builds CDL cases toward dismissal or trial when a plea would cost the client the license, as described on our DUI defense attorney in Tampa page.

Does a withhold of adjudication protect my CDL?

No. Federal rules treat a plea accepted by the court as a conviction for CDL purposes and bar states from masking it. Our attorneys at The Brancato Law Firm explain this before any plea, as our guide to Florida DUI penalties notes for regular licenses as well.

What if the hearing officer upholds my CDL disqualification?

You can ask the circuit court to review the decision through a petition for writ of certiorari, filed within 30 days of the order. The Brancato Law Firm won that kind of review in the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit in 2025, restoring a commercial driver’s regular license and CDL.

For how The Brancato Law Firm, P.A. defends these cases, see our Tampa criminal traffic defense practice.

Talk to our attorneys about a CDL DUI

If you hold a CDL, call before the 10-day review deadline passes, because the disqualification is already running. The Brancato Law Firm, P.A., founded by Tampa Criminal Defense Attorney Rocky Brancato, handles the review hearing and the criminal case together; call (813) 727-7159 at any hour. Our firm has Spanish-speaking staff, and attorney Jean-Luc Adrien speaks Spanish, Haitian Creole, and French. For more about our defense strategies, visit our DUI defense page.

The Brancato Law Firm, P.A.
620 E. Twiggs Street, Suite 205, Tampa, FL 33602
(813) 727-7159
Serving Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Pasco Counties

The Brancato Law Firm, P.A. is a Tampa-based criminal defense practice. We are not affiliated with any other Brancato-named law firms.